The highest-performing teams are those with the highest levels of psychological safety.
Google took a good, long intensive look at what separated the highly-functioning incredibly effective teams from those that are less effective. It boiled down to cultural norms within the teams themselves more so than the makeup of the team or any particular cadence of meeting or team structure. The norms related to psychological safety were those that were associated with highly functional teams…
- Ability to bring to light ideas you’re unsure of
- Ability to speak up and question things (respectfully)
- Belief that they are not going to be berated in front of a group
You need people to feel safe, but also feel like they can speak up and disagree.
👉 There is an "I" in "team". There are a bunch of them. They need to be heard and feel safe to retain their individuality and contribute in their unique way.
Lorne Michaels didn’t want “no I in team”… he wanted a team full of “I”s, where nobody’s particular quirks are lost to the group. Lorne Michaels treats everyone differently. He wants to preserve the individual. Get different people with different styles bumping into each other. This is what Steven Covey called Diversity